User blog:BeastMan14/Review: "Us" Is A Superb Sophomore Showing from Jordan Peele
Every director is afraid of that sophomore slump. You make an excellent debut, and suddenly everyone is breathing down your neck to see if that was just a fluke or if you've got some talent on your hands. This was certainly the case with Us, Jordan Peele's follow-up to Get Out. Get Out was a timely, riveting, and often quite funny film, and as it turns out, Peele was not only capable of recapturing the magic that made it work, but outright surpassing with a visually striking thriller that grabs you from it's opening minutes and never lets you go. The Cast For Us, Peele assembled a diverse cast of newcomers and veterans alike and effectively gave them one of the most difficult to pull off tricks in cinema: play two roles at once. In this case, it's both the Wilson family and their friends and the mysterious "Tethered", evil copies that seem hell-bent on murdering them. And almost effortlessly, the cast pulls it off. As the story's lead heroine and antagonist, Lupita Nyong'o is excellent, playing Adelaide as a likable, believable character while still keeping her vulnerable and playing "Red" as an absolutely terrifying, strangely charismatic force. It's an Oscar-worthy turn from an actress with one already under her belt. Opposite her is Winston Duke, a fellow Black Panther alum and relative breakout, who plays the film's comic relief turned scrapper in a way that feels real and never lapses into caricature. If you're used to him as the boisterous, charismatic M'Baku, you're gonna be in for a real shock with this turn from him. Rounding out the Wilsons are Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex in their big screen debuts, and they somehow manage to hold their own with Nyong'o and Duke while being frightening and deeply unnerving as their "Tethered" counterparts, which is helped by stellar make-up work that places them deeply in the uncanny valley. In traditional Blumhouse style, the cast is relatively small, but the true comedic relief is the Tylers, the snobby, dysfunctional friends of the family played by Tim Heidecker and Elisabeth Moss. Despite their limited screentime, the Tylers prove to be memorable both for the squabbling banter that contrasts the more unified Wilsons and their surprisingly chilling turns as Tethered, with Heidecker in particular injecting his role with a sense of humor that comes off as creepy rather than distracting from it. (A particular hand gesture he does has been stuck in my head since I saw it.) The small cast at work here is proof of quality over quantity, and I'm immensely surprised something this high-concept was handled so well, when there were so many chances it could've been squandered. Score: 5 out of 5 The Story While it lacks the same political subtext that made Get Out such a hit, Us proves that Jordan Peele's understanding of comedic set-up and timing can easily translate to horror. Nothing, no matter how small, is insignificant, and every plot thread or potential set-up pays off somewhere along the line. It keeps you guessing as it plays along, slowly trickling the details of the film's central mystery to you, and is able to break the tension with well-timed jokes that feel like genuine dialogue and not just quips. Even a mid-film twist that greatly escalates the scale and stakes of the story doesn't break it, instead hitting you like a truck as whatever theory you may have had falls apart. One downfall of the script, however, is the tightness of it's mystery. The reveal of what exactly the Tethered are works initially, but falls apart upon further review, a victim of it's own strange complexity. While it doesn't break the story or make the (almost instantly iconic) villains any less frightening, it does feel like something of a letdown, especially in comparison to how well Get Out's reveal worked. Score: 4 out of 5 The Direction The most notable improvement from Get Out is the style of Peele's direction, which showcases notable confidence in both skill and managing a sense of scale, alongside his best tricks like intense close-ups. The best example of this is the home invasion sequences, one of which is done in one long take that manages to feel chaotic without being disorienting while the other has you practically screaming at the screen as the threat sneaks up on it's characters. (I'll never be able to hear "Good Vibrations" properly again.) Through these scenes and the movie as a whole, Peele shows a notable skill with making action interesting without ever relying on cheap shock or gore, to the point where I only counted 1'' jumpscare in the entire film. The cinematography by Mike Gioulakis is gorgeous as well, working with shadows and lighting to create shots that have you scanning every corner, fraught with anxiety that someone (or something) could be lying in wait, which is helped by razor-tight editing from Nicholas Monsour that feels chaotic but always easy to follow. The real highlight is the score, a throwback to old school thrillers that still manages to feel fresh and ramp up the tension at just the right moment without relying on scare cues. Peele's direction in this is the kind of work most directors work for years to be capable of doing, and it's an impressive transition from the horror-satire of ''Get Out to something that plays like a hellish combination of The Strangers and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Score: 5 out of 5 Final Verdict Us is one of the best horror films of an era where we seem to be getting a great one every three months. It's an expertly-crafted, relentless film with great performances, and further proof that we live in an utterly strange. Imagine telling yourself five years ago that the Obama impersonation guy would turn out to be a great director. You'd be burned at the stake like a witch. Score: 93% Potential Ballot Spots: *Best Picture *Best Director: Jordan Peele *Best Actress: Lupita Nyong'o *Best Supporting Actor: Winston Duke (in a weak year) *Best Male Limited Performance: Tim Heidecker *Best Original Screenplay *Best Original Score *Best Film Editing *Best Cinematography *Best Make-Up and Hairstyling Category:Blog posts Category:Reviews Category:2019 Reviews